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Elizabeth Warren Says Apple, Amazon and Google Are Trying To 'Lock Out' Competition (recode.net)

Elizabeth Warren, an American academic and member of the Democratic Party, believes that Google, Apple, and Amazon are trying to use their size to "snuff out competition." In a speech about the perils of "consolidation and concentration" throughout the economy, the Massachusetts senator singled out the three of tech's biggest players. From a report:Warren had different beefs with Google, Apple and Amazon, but the common thread was that she accused each one of using its powerful platform to "lock out smaller guys and newer guys," including some that compete with Google, Apple and Amazon. Google, she said, uses "its dominant search engine to harm rivals of its Google Plus user review feature;" Apple "has placed conditions on its rivals that make it difficult for them to offer competitive streaming services" that compete with Apple Music; and Amazon "uses its position as the dominant bookseller to steer consumers to books published by Amazon to the detriment of other publishers.""Google, Apple and Amazon have created disruptive technologies that changed the world, and ... they deserve to be highly profitable and successful," Warren said. "But the opportunity to compete must remain open for new entrants and smaller competitors that want their chance to change the world again."

8 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Business 101 by Berkyjay · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She also seems to understand the role that government should play in combating that first rule.

  2. Re:Business 101 by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She also seems to understand the role that government should play in combating that first rule.

    Perhaps she might also lecture her colleagues regarding what they should be focussing on - stuff like this - instead of them devoting their energies towards hobbling encryption and trying to remove their citizen's constitutional rights.

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    #DeleteChrome
  3. Re:Well yeah by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Pulling up the ladder behind you is a STAPLE of the current tech company leadership.

    I think you meant, "Pulling up the ladder behind you is a STAPLE of every company and government in the history of the universe."

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  4. Re:Business 101 by Zantac69 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    She also seems to understand the role that government should play in combating that first rule.

    :head scratch: So Amazon, Apple, and Google should encourage their competition?

    You mean like how the two major political parties have rigged the board so as to discourage political parties outside of the two majors?

    --
    1331461 is only semiprime *sigh* Alas - I am just short of 1337.
  5. Re:I don't believe that to be true!! by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Informative

    Who is world would call Elizabeth warren an academic?

    Apparently, the University of Texas, the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard as she taught at each of their Law Schools. From Wikipedia:

    Warren was formerly a professor of law, and taught at the University of Texas School of Law, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and most recently at Harvard Law School. A prominent scholar specializing in bankruptcy law, Warren was among the most cited in the field of commercial law before starting her political career.

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    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  6. Re:she's a hypocrit by chispito · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The only way a monopoly can exist is through government protection.

    You have it exactly backwards. The only way competition exists in certain (most?) sectors is due to government protection.

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    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  7. Using Google Plus to dominate?? by gachunt · · Score: 5, Funny

    Her argument really fell apart for me at that point.

  8. Re: she's a hypocrit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The problem is that a collective (like a society) is more than just a bunch of people crammed together.

    It is a bunch of people who have to cooperate with each other. Cooperation requires limiting selfish indulgences, and defining where one person's rights end, and another's begins. Eg, if I am a home owner who is a lazy slob who harbors trash, my freedom to be a willful slob creates a haven for vermin that accosted my neighbors, bease the vermin don't stay put. To satisfy the neighbor's rights to keep their homes free of vermin, my right to be a slob has to be infringed.

    We do not live in a universe where ideal fantasies about personal liberty can be realistically entertained.

    That is what people try to tell you. You are the one not understanding.